Critical Essay by B. J. Tysdahl

In the following essay, Tysdahl discusses the influence of Ibsen on Exiles.

In appearance Exiles is like one of Ibsen's realistic dramas from beginning to end. Joyce's stage-directions begin, as if copied from A Doll's House or An Enemy of the People, with a minute description of the drawing-room; then follows, in a new paragraph, a sketch of the persons we see on the stage. Throughout the play stage-directions are frequent, often in the form of an adverb to indicate the tone of a speech. Words like ‘heartily’ or ‘shyly’ are used as often in Exiles as in The Masterbuilder. Behind these outer resemblances lies the fact that, like Ibsen, Joyce deliberately chose the present...